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Tuesday, 10 November 2015

There are no shortcuts to success

Rabbi Yehoshua was once on the way to Jerusalem when his GPS
stopped working. Pulling over to a gas
station, he asks the attendant for directions.

“Sir, would you like the short long way or the long short
way?” the young boy inquires.

“Just tell me whatever’s the shortest distance from here to
the city, would you, son?” replies the rabbi.

“Certainly, the short long way is just up that road that way
and you’ll see Jerusalem in no time,” says the boy.

Rabbi Yehoshua sets out in the direction described and sure
enough, a little while later, he can see the walls of the city up ahead. Strangely, however, it appears the path has
ended; and to get to Jerusalem, he would have to cross a thorny, swampy area,
with great difficulty, probably ruining his clothes in the process.

“This is ridiculous!” he cries, “and turns back around in
the direction he had come from.

Returning to the gas station, he says to the boy, “Seriously?! The way you sent me was impassable! You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“I told you, sir,” responds the lad, “that that way was the
short long way. You desired the shortest
distance to Jerusalem. That way may at
first be short, but ultimately it is long.
If you head along this other path, here, you will take the long short
route. Distance-wise it will be a bit longer, but in the end you will arrive
with much less difficulty, making it ultimately the shortest route.”

Mishnah: Continuing the ritual of the bitter waters, the
cohen would bring an earthenware vial and fill it with half a log of water from
the Temple basin. He would then enter
the Sanctuary and turn to the right, where there was a place that was an amah
by an amah wide with a marble slate with a ring attached to it. He would lift up the slate and take earth
from beneath it and place it visibly in the water.

Gemara: What is the reason for turning right? Anytime you turn, it should always be to the
right.

In life, we make many choices. We often come to a fork in the road and are
faced with a decision: to the right or to the left? It is tempting to choose the quickest, easiest
route. But that doesn’t always get us to
the place we ultimately want to be. Most
of the time, it’s the long and challenging path that leads to our dreams. That is the ‘right’ path to turn towards.

We live in a world of instantaneous gratification. If we can’t have it now, many of us don’t
have the patience or the strength of character to invest in the future. But good things come to those who wait. As Pirkei Avot teaches, “Commensurate with
the effort is the reward.” The long and
winding, consistent, road is the long short way to accomplishing your dreams!

Nobody has ever become wise from reading Wikipedia. True wisdom comes from the investment of time
and effort in reading real books and researching real material. Nor do you become a talmid chacham by
consulting with Rabbi Google or reading Artscroll translations. The path to Torah scholarship comes from
years and years of delving into our holy texts, in the original.

And so too in your professional life. As Malcolm Gladwell discovers in Outliers,
nobody becomes successful overnight. While
people may sometimes appear to be overnight success stories, what really
happened was that the world discovered them after their years of hard,
consistent work. You put in that time
and effort and it will eventually pay off.

Our Sages tell us, “If someone says, ‘I made the effort but
was unsuccessful,’ do not believe them.
If they say, ‘I made no effort, but I was successful,’ do not believe
them. But if they say, ‘I made the
effort and was successful,’ believe them.”

There are no shortcuts to success. The only shortcut is knowing ahead of time
that the short long path will not bear fruit.
May you work hard and travel the long road to success!